Ana Walshe

Case background and investigation

Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old real estate executive who had emigrated from Serbia, was last seen in the early morning hours of January 1, 2023, at the home she shared with her husband, Brian Walshe, and their three young children in Cohasset, Massachusetts. According to authorities, she was reported missing on January 4, 2023, by both her employer, Tishman Speyer, and by Brian Walshe. He told investigators that Ana had left the house to catch a rideshare to Boston's Logan Airport for a work emergency in Washington, D.C., where she also maintained a residence. Police said they were unable to verify that she ever boarded a flight or arrived in Washington.

As State Police and the Norfolk District Attorney's office investigated, prosecutors said evidence pointed away from Brian Walshe's account. Authorities reported that surveillance and store records placed him purchasing cleaning supplies, a hammer, and wire snips at a Home Depot and Lowe's, and said a search of the couple's home turned up blood and a damaged, bloodstained knife in the basement. Investigators also said they recovered discarded items — including a hatchet, a hacksaw, a Tyvek suit, towels, and personal effects belonging to Ana — from trash facilities, and later testified that DNA analysis linked some items to both Ana and Brian Walshe. Prosecutors said her body was never recovered.

Central to the case, prosecutors said, was a series of internet searches attributed to Brian Walshe, some reportedly conducted on his son's iPad. Authorities said the queries included phrases such as 'how long before a body starts to smell,' methods of dismembering and disposing of a body, and 'can you be charged with murder without a body.' Prosecutors also cited a life insurance policy naming Brian Walshe as beneficiary as a possible financial motive. Walshe's defense disputed the state's interpretation of the evidence.

Brian Walshe was first arrested on January 8, 2023, and charged with misleading a police investigation. On January 18, 2023, he was further charged in connection with Ana's death, and a grand jury indicted him on March 30, 2023, on counts of first-degree murder, misleading a police investigation, and improper conveyance of a human body. He initially pleaded not guilty to all charges and, through his attorneys, maintained his innocence on the murder count.

The case remained in pretrial proceedings for nearly three years. On November 19, 2025, Brian Walshe changed his plea to guilty on the lesser charges of misleading a police investigation and improper conveyance of a human body — admitting, his defense said, that he had disposed of Ana's remains — while continuing to deny that he had killed her. His murder trial proceeded before a Norfolk County jury.

On December 15, 2025, after roughly six hours of deliberation, the jury found Brian Walshe guilty of first-degree murder. On December 18, 2025, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, citing what the court described as 'barbaric' acts, and imposed additional consecutive terms on the counts to which he had pleaded guilty. Prosecutors noted the rarity of securing a first-degree murder conviction without the victim's body having been recovered. Ana Walshe's remains have never been found.